U.S. Boosts Defense From North Korea

The Pentagon is preparing to strengthen its missile defense systems on the West Coast in response to increased threats from North Korea and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. Julian Barnes and Michaela Dodge, Heritage Foundation defense policy analyst, join The News Hub. Photo: AP/KCNA.

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon will spend $1 billion to expand the West Coast-based missile-defense system in a direct response to provocations by North Korea and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, officials said Friday.

By 2017, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. would install 14 additional ground-based missile interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska, representing an increase of nearly 50% over the 30 interceptors now located both there and in California.

The move accentuates new worries that North Korea has accelerated progress in its intercontinental ballistic missile program.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel Friday said the U.S. plans to boost its missile defense system due to concerns about the possible nuclear capabilities of North Korea.
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The precise ranges of North Korea's missiles are uncertain. Defense officials currently believe that North Korean missiles can reach Hawaii as well as Alaska, but not the continental U.S. At the same time, U.S. officials don't believe North Korea has developed a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could be mounted on any missile.

Mr. Hagel didn't specify when U.S. military and intelligence analysts believe Pyongyang will have an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The purpose of Friday's announcement was to keep ahead of Pyongyang's military developments, Mr. Hagel said.

In January the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully conducted a flight test of a ground-based Interceptor. Interceptors are launched to intercept intercontinental missiles in flight. The last successful test was in December 2008. Photo: U.S. Dept. of Defense.

"The United States has missile-defense systems in place to protect us from limited ICBM attacks, but North Korea in particular has recently made advances in its capabilities and is engaged in a series of irresponsible and reckless provocations," Mr. Hagel said.

Pentagon officials cited recent developments in North Korea—a long-range missile test, a nuclear test and the demonstration of a mobile launcher—that suggested the country's missile technology is advancing faster than earlier predicted.

On Friday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, a test that appeared to be a response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises under way in the region.

The weapons tests have been accompanied by a spike in hostile North Korean rhetoric—including a threat to attack Washington and turn South Korea into a "sea of fire"—and a repudiation this week of the 1953 Korean War armistice.

The Pentagon announcement, analysts said, will send a clear signal to Pyongyang that it has Washington's attention, and that the West intends to respond. That may be a signal Pyongyang has been seeking.

"After North Korea's successful December launch and third nuclear test, their threats are not completely empty," said Ellen Kim, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The administration decision to beef up the missile-defense system comes after President Barack Obama put a hold on the plan in 2009 after taking office. Republican lawmakers agreed Friday with the move to reinstate the missile-defense capacity, and said the administration was wrong to freeze the system in 2009.

"Four years ago, the Obama administration began to unilaterally disarm our defenses and deterrent in the hope our enemies would follow suit," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. "President Obama is finally realizing what President Reagan taught us 30 years ago—the best way to keep the peace is through strength."

Former President Ronald Reagan in March 1983 unveiled his Strategic Defensive Initiative, a project widely known at the time as "Star Wars."

Pentagon officials dismissed the Republican criticism, saying North Korean technology was considerably less developed four years ago.

James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the U.S. approach is to "stay ahead of the threat," based on North Korean technological capabilities, and not on the regime's rhetoric or intent.

Adm. James Winnefeld, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the system was meant to dissuade North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Eun, from toying with the idea of an attack.

"We believe this young lad ought to be deterred…and if he is not, we will be ready," Adm. Winnefeld said.

The administration has been laying the groundwork for toughening its stance against North Korea. Earlier this week, White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said in a speech in New York that the U.S. would tap "the full range of our capabilities to protect against and respond to the threat posed to us and our allies by North Korea."

Both intelligence officials and top lawmakers rang alarm bells on North Korea's nuclear threat at a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week to assess the threats facing the U.S. from around the world.

U.S. spy agencies concluded in a new assessment that the danger from North Korea has grown into "a serious threat to the United States" as well as to East Asia.

Whether the U.S. system of ground-based interceptors are the right response quickly became a matter of debate Friday. The interceptors, vehicles that are launched to intercept intercontinental missiles in flight, have failed in some recent tests, with the last fully successful test occurring in 2008.

Mr. Hagel said the U.S. wouldn't purchase the new weapons until military officials conduct successful tests of the interceptors.

Yousaf Butt, a scholar at Monterey Institute of International Studies, said the ground-based interceptors remains scientifically flawed, and could give American politicians a "false sense of security" that could prompt missteps in the Western Pacific.

"I don't see how adding 14 more [ground-based interceptors] along the Pacific Coast by 2017 will substantially change the North Koreans' perception of the system's well-known abysmal performance," he said. "The North Koreans may be irrational, but they are probably not that irrational."

Mr. Hagel also outlined a series of upgrades under development, including plans to install a second advanced radar system in Japan to more quickly detect North Korean missile launches.

The Pentagon is also examining a location for a third U.S. site for interceptor missiles to augment the sites in Alaska and California. Officials said they are looking at two locations on the East Coast, as well as a second field at Fort Greely.

Pentagon officials said that they notified China of the new interceptors. Beijing has been skeptical of U.S. missile defense initiatives, believing they are aimed at China.

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China plays a vital role in the standoff, and last month backed a United Nations Security Council Resolution slapping tougher sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's third nuclear test, a stance that encouraged some analysts.

But China has supported international goals before, only to undermine them later by cozying up to North Korea or failing to enforce sanctions, said Victor Cha, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ultimately, the new U.S. moves may not influence North Korea's behavior. Given North Korea's domestic problems, seeking foreign scapegoats is of diverting attention from Pyongyang's shortcomings.

By saber-rattling against the U.S., Kim is diverting attention away from his own "ineptitude and failings as the leader of the country," said Bruce Bennett, an expert on North Korea and missile defense at the Rand Corp., a think tank which works extensively for the U.S. government.

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